iMacsoontobe, you could have a problem external drive. I have helped several people that had their computer slow down and beachball from having a misbehaving external drive. Eject it or startup without the external drive connected to see if that is the problem. Some of them have a reset button on the back and the drive gets in a unusable state and must be reset. Just another thing to try.

_________________________Well, until they make it right, I hope they never sleep at night. They better make some changes and do it soon. -Things Goin' On/Lynyrd Skynyrd

Your permissions are hosed for sure. Have you repaired permissions yet? If not Run Disk Utility and repair permissions while booted from the HD, if it will launch. If not run Disk Utility permissions repair while booted from the install disk if you get that going, then reboot and repair permissions while booted from the HD.

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